Channel interleaver having a constellation-based block-wise permuation module

ABSTRACT

A channel interleaver comprises a novel constellation-based permutation module. The channel interleaver first receives a plurality of sets of encoded bits generated from an FEC encoder. The encoded bits are distributed into multiple subblocks and each subblock comprises a plurality of adjacent bits. A subblock interleaver interleaves each subblock and outputs a plurality of interleaved bits. The constellation-based permutation module rearranges the interleaved bits and outputs a plurality of rearranged bits. The rearranged bits are supplied to a symbol mapper such that a plurality of consecutively encoded bits in the same set of the encoded bits generated from the FEC encoder is prevented to be mapped onto the same level of bit reliability of a modulation symbol. In addition, the plurality of adjacent bits of each subblock is also prevented to be mapped onto the same level of bit reliability to achieve constellation diversity and to improve decoding performance.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 from U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/141,831, entitled “Interleaves Design forError Correction Code,” filed on Dec. 31, 2008, U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/149,716, entitled “Bit Grouping Design for ErrorCorrection Code,” filed on Feb. 4, 2009, U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 61/154,027, entitled “Bit Grouping Design for Error CorrectionCode,” filed on Feb. 20, 2009, U.S. Provisional Application No.61/163,941, entitled “Bit Grouping Design for Error Correction Code,”filed on Mar. 27, 2009, the subject matter of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to interleaver design forerror correction code, and, more particularly, to constellation-basedpermutation for channel interleaving.

BACKGROUND

Most of error correction codes (ECCs) are designed to correct randomchannel errors. The decoder performance usually suffers from burstchannel errors with long runs. Channel interleaving is employed toaverage the burst channel errors to improve performance. At thetransmitter side, channel interleaving scrambles encoded bits such thatthe effect of a long channel fading is distributed over an entire codingblock and thus the run length of each burst channel error in one codingblock is largely reduced at the receiver side.

FIG. 1 (Prior Art) is a block diagram of an interleaving scheme forchannel encoding adopted in IEEE 802.16e wireless systems. In IEEE802.16e wireless systems, convolutional turbo code (CTC) interleaver isused for channel encoding. As illustrated in FIG. 1, CTC interleaver 11comprises a bit separation module 12, a subblock interleaver 13, and abit-grouping module 14. Bit separation module 12 receives all encodedbits from CTC encoder and distributes the encoded bits into severalinformation subblocks A and B, and several parity subblocks Y1, Y2, W1and W2. Subblock interleaver 13 interleaves all subblocks independently.Bit-grouping module 14 multiplexes the interleaved subblocks andregroups them into subblocks A, B, Y and W.

In IEEE 802.16e, the entire subblock of bits to be interleaved iswritten into an array at addresses from 0 to the number of bits minusone (N−1), and the interleaved bits are read out in a permuted orderwith the i-th bit being read from address AD_(i) (i=0 . . . N−1). Theformula of subblock interleaver 13 is given as follows:

T _(k)=2^(m)(k mod J)+BRO _(m)(└k/J┘)  (1)

where T_(k) is a tentative output address, m and J are subblockinterleaver parameters, BRO_(m)(y) indicates the bit-reversed m-bitvalue of y (i.e., BRO₃(6)=3). If T_(k) is less than N, then AD_(i)=T_(k)and increment i and k by 1; otherwise discard T_(k) and increment konly. The above subblock interleaving procedure is repeated until all Ninterleaver output addresses are obtained.

The interleaved bits are then modulated and transmitted at thetransmitter side. At the receiver side, the received bits arede-modulated, de-interleaved, and then decoded by a CTC decoder. Inhigh-order modulation schemes (e.g., 16 QAM and 64 QAM where modulationsymbols carry more than two bits), different bits have different errorprobabilities because there are multiple level of bit reliabilities inone modulation symbol. As a result, two problems arise using the IEEE802.16e CTC interleaving scheme with high-order modulation. First, basedon the subblock interleaving equation (1), adjacent encoded bits in eachsubblock are mapped onto the same bit reliability. This problem is alsoreferred to as intra-block continuity as depicted in FIG. 1, whereadjacent encoded bits 0, 1, 2 in subblock A are all mapped to high bitreliability H. Second, because each subblock is interleaved based on thesame interleaving equation, multiple bits with the same index indifferent subblocks may be mapped onto the same bit level. This problemis also referred to as inter-block continuity as depicted in FIG. 1,where the same bits 93 in different subblocks A and B are all mapped tolow bit reliability L.

FIG. 2 (Prior Art) illustrates intra-block continuity problem with moredetail. FIG. 2 comprises a diagram of subblock A after subblockinterleaving and a 16 QAM constellation map 21. The interleaved subblockA is supplied to a symbol mapper using a selected modulation scheme.Under 16 QAM modulation scheme, each modulation symbol carries four bitsb0b1b2b3, with b0 and b2 have high bit reliability H, and b1 and b3 havelow bit reliability L. As illustrated in FIG. 2, based on the subblockinterleaving equation (1), adjacent bits in subblock A are all mappedonto the same bit reliability. For example, bits 0-31, 96-160 are mappedto H, and bits 32-95, 161-191 are mapped to L.

FIG. 3 (Prior Art) illustrates inter-block continuity problem with moredetail. FIG. 3 comprises a CTC encoder 31 and a 64 QAM constellation map32. CTC Encoder 31 takes a pair of input bits A and B and generates aset of encoded bits A, B, Y1, W1, Y2, and W2 on a set-by-set basis. Eachset of the encoded bits are interleaved and then supplied to a symbolmapper using a selected modulation scheme. In 64 QAM, each modulationsymbol carries six bits b0b1b2b3b4b5, with b0 and b3 have high bitreliability H, b1 and b4 have medium reliability M, and b2 and b5 havelow bit reliability L. As illustrated in FIG. 3, because all subblocksare interleaved based on the same interleaving equation, the same set ofencoded bits are mapped onto the same bit reliability. For example, thesame bits 93 in both subblocks A and B are mapped to L.

Because of the intra-block and inter-block continuity problems, the IEEE802.16e channel interleaver induces burst errors and consequently itsdecoder performance suffers. It is thus desirable to prevent mappingadjacent encoded bits within each subblock onto the same level of bitreliability, and also desirable to prevent mapping multiple encoded bitswith the same index in different subblocks onto the same level of bitreliability.

SUMMARY

A channel interleaver comprises a novel constellation-based permutationmodule. The channel interleaver first receives a plurality of sets ofencoded bits generated from an FEC encoder. The encoded bits aredistributed into multiple subblocks and each subblock comprises aplurality of adjacent bits. A subblock interleaver interleaves eachsubblock and outputs a plurality of interleaved bits. Theconstellation-based permutation module rearranges the interleaved bitsand outputs a plurality of rearranged bits. The rearranged bits aresupplied to a symbol mapper such that a plurality of consecutivelyencoded bits in the same set of the encoded bits generated from the FECencoder prevented to be mapped onto the same level of bit reliability ofa modulation symbol. In addition, the plurality of adjacent bits of eachsubblock is also prevented to be mapped onto the same level of bitreliability to achieve constellation diversity and to improve decodingperformance at the receiver side.

In one embodiment, the constellation-based permutation module performsblock-wise scrambling on the interleaved bits. In one example, theconstellation-based permutation module scrambles the interleaved bits bycircularly shifting a selected number of bits for a selected number ofsubblocks. In another example, the constellation-based permutationmodule scrambles the interleaved bits by swapping a selected number ofbits for a selected number of subblocks.

In another embodiment, the constellation-based permutation moduleperforms unit-wise scrambling on the interleaved bits. In one example,the constellation-based permutation module first partitions each of thesubblocks into multiple units, and then scrambles the interleaved bitsby circularly shifting a selected number of bits for a selected numberof units of each subblock. In another example, the constellation-basedpermutation module first partitions each of the subblocks into multipleunits, and then scrambles the interleaved bits by swapping a selectednumber of bits for a selected number of units of each subblock.

Other embodiments and advantages are described in the detaileddescription below. This summary does not purport to define theinvention. The invention is defined by the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, where like numerals indicate like components,illustrate embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 1 (Prior Art) is a block diagram of interleaving scheme for channelencoding adopted in IEEE 802.16e wireless systems.

FIG. 2 (Prior Art) illustrates a subblock diagram after subblockinterleaving and a 16 QAM constellation map.

FIG. 3 (Prior Art) illustrates a CTC encoder and a 64 QAM constellationmap.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter-encoder and areceiver-decoder in accordance with one novel aspect.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram that illustrates a first embodiment of achannel interleaver of FIG. 4.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart of channel interleaving with block-wisescrambling scheme performed by a channel interleaver.

FIG. 6A illustrates how constellation diversity is achieved for each setof encoded bits at transmit side through a constellation-basedpermutation module.

FIG. 6B illustrates how decoding performance is improved at receive sidebecause of constellation diversity.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram that illustrates a second embodiment of achannel interleaver of FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram that illustrates a third embodiment of achannel interleaver of FIG. 4.

FIG. 9A is a block diagram that illustrates a fourth embodiment of achannel interleaver of FIG. 4.

FIG. 9B is a flow chart of channel interleaving with unit-wisescrambling scheme performed by a channel interleaver.

FIG. 10 illustrates how constellation diversity is achieved within eachsubblock through a constellation-based permutation module.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram that illustrates a fifth embodiment of achannel interleaver of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams of simulation result for channelinterleaver performance.

FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C illustrate different embodiments of a channelinterleaver in accordance with one novel aspect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to some embodiments of theinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter-encoder 41 and areceiver-decoder 51 in accordance with one novel aspect.Transmitter-encoder 41 comprises a forward error correction (FEC)encoder 42, a channel interleaver 43, a symbol mapper 45, a modulationmodule 40, and a transmitting antenna 66. Channel interleaver 43 furthercomprises a bit separation module 46, a subblock interleaver 47, abit-grouping module 48, and a constellation-based permutation module 49.Similarly, receiver-decoder 51 comprises a FEC decoder 52, a channelde-interleaver 53, a symbol de-mapper 55, a demodulation module 50, anda receiving antenna 76. Channel de-interleaver 53 further comprises abit de-separation module 56, a subblock de-interleaver 57, a bitde-grouping module 58, and a constellation-based de-permutation module59. At the transmitter side, a plurality of sets of encoded bits 101from FEC encoder 42 are interleaved, mapped and modulated intotransmission symbol 102 and then transmitted by antenna 66. At thereceiver side, receive symbols 103 received by antenna 76 arede-modulated, de-mapped and then de-interleaved into decoder input bits104 to be decoded by FEC decoder 52.

In one novel aspect, channel interleaver 43 comprisesconstellation-based permutation module 49 to achieve constellationdiversity for improved decoder performance against burst channel errors.Bit separation module 46 receives a plurality of sets of encoded bits101 from FEC encoder and distributes them into a first set ofinformation subblocks and parity subblocks. Subblock interleaver 47interleaves each subblock independently. In one embodiment, bit-groupingmodule 48 multiplexes the interleaved bits and regroups then into asecond set of subblocks and outputs as interleaved bits 105. The numberof the first set of multiple subblocks is not necessary the same as thenumber of the second set of multiple subblocks, which are generatedafter regrouping. The number of the second set of multiple subblocks canbe the different as the first set of multiple subblocks in accordancewith different system design and implementation considerations. Inanother embodiment (shown in FIG. 13B), subblock interleaver 47interleaves each subblock and outputs interleaved bits 105 directly.Constellation-based permutation module 49 partitions (optional) andscrambles interleaved bits 105 into rearranged bits 106. By scramblingthe interleaved bits 105, a plurality of consecutively encoded bitswithin each set of the encoded bits 101 is prevented to be mapped ontothe same level of bit reliability of a modulation symbol via symbolmapper 45. In addition, by partitioning and then scrambling theinterleaved bits 105, the plurality of adjacent bits within a subblockis also prevented to be mapped onto the same level of bit reliability ofa modulation symbol. Therefore, such constellation-based permutationachieves constellation diversity and improves decoder performance at thereceiver side.

There are two basic types of constellation-based permutation, one isreferred to as block-wise scrambling, and the other is referred to asunit-wise scrambling. Each of the constellation-based permutation typesis now described below with more details.

Block-Wise Scrambling

FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a channel interleaver 61 that illustratesa first embodiment of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4. In the exampleof FIG. 5A, channel interleaver 61 is designed based on IEEE 802.16echannel interleaver 11 of FIG. 1 that is illustrated in the backgroundsection. Channel interleaver 61 comprises a bit separation module 62, asubblock interleaver 63, and a bit-grouping module 64. In addition,channel interleaver 61 comprises a novel constellation-based permutationmodule 65.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart of channel interleaving with block-wisescrambling scheme performed by channel interleaver 61 of FIG. 5A. First,FEC encoder 42 generates a plurality of sets of encoded bits 101 (step201). In IEEE 802.16e, a convolutional turbo code (CTC) encoder isadopted as FEC encoder 42. Under CTC encoding, every two inputs bits areencoded to generate six encoded bits (i.e., two informational bits A, Band four parity bits Y1, Y2, W1, and W2). Thus, encoder input bits 100are supplied to CTC encoder 42 every two bits at a time, and a pluralityof sets of encoded bits 101 are consecutively encoded and generated byCTC encoder 42 every six bits at a time, with every six bits form a setof encoded bits. Next, the plurality of sets of encoded bits 101 isdistributed by bit separation module 62 into six subblocks (i.e., afirst set of multiple subblocks) (step 202). The six subblocks includetwo informational subblocks A and B, and four parity subblocks Y1, Y2,W1 and W2. Each of the six subblocks is then interleaved independentlyby subblock interleaver 63 (step 203). The formula of subblockinterleaver 63 is given by the subblock interleaving equation (1)described in the background section. Bit-grouping module 64 furthermultiplexes and regroups each of the interleaved subblocks into a secondset of multiple subblocks, where information subblocks A and B remainthe same, parity subblocks Y1 and Y2 are multiplexed and regrouped intosubblock Y, and parity subblocks W1 and W2 are multiplexed and regroupedinto subblock W (step 204). After multiplexing and regrouping eachinterleaved subblock into a plurality of interleaved bits 105,interleaved bits 105 are finally block-wise scrambled byconstellation-based permutation module 65 (step 205). After scrambling,rearranged bits 106 are mapped by symbol mapper 45 such that all sixbits within each set of encoded bits 101 are mapped onto differentlevels of reliability of a modulation symbol before transmission (step208).

In the example of FIG. 5A, constellation-based permutation module 65performs block-wise scrambling by circularly shifting a selected numberof bits for a selected number of subblocks. First, a number of subblocksout of the four subblocks A, B, Y and W are selected (i.e., step 206 ofFIG. 5B). The number of subblocks selected is determined based onmodulation order, FEC block size (Nep), and encoding scheme. In thisparticular example, information subblock B and parity subblock W areselected. Next, each of the selected subblocks is circularlyleft-shifted by a number of bits (i.e., step 207 of FIG. 5B). The numberof bits to be shifted for each subblock is determined such that each setof encoded bits 101 generated by FEC encoder 42 are mapped ontodifferent levels of bit reliability of a modulation symbol. In thisparticular example, subblock B and subblock W are shifted by k bits,where k is set to integer one when the FEC block size Nep is equal tomultiple of the modulation order, and otherwise k is set to zero. In theexample of 64 QAM where modulation order is six, k is set to one if Nepis equal to multiple of six, and k is set to zero if otherwise. Bycircularly left-shifting a selected number of bits for a selected numberof subblocks, constellation diversity is achieved to improve decoderperformance at the receiver side.

FIG. 6A illustrates how constellation diversity is achieved throughconstellation-based permutation. FIG. 6A comprises simplified diagramsof a CTC encoder 42, a channel interleaver with constellation-basedpermutation 43, and a symbol mapper 45. CTC encoder 42 generates aplurality of sets of encoded bits 101 from encoder input bits 100 on aset-by-set basis. As illustrated in FIG. 6A, encoder inputs bits A and Bare supplied to CTC encoder 42 every two bits at a time, and every twoencoder bits are encoded to output one set of six encoded bits A, B, Y1,Y2, W1 and W2 every six bits at a time. For example, a first bit ofinput A and a first bit of input B are supplied to CTC encoder 42 at onetime instance. After CTC encoding, a first set of encoded bits areconsecutively encoded and generated at another time instance, and thefirst set of encoded bits includes a first bit of A, B, Y1, Y2, W1, andW2 respectively. In other words, the n^(th) bit of A, B, Y1, Y2, W1 andW2 are generated to form the n^(th) set of encoded bits at acorresponding time instance. The plurality of sets of encoded bits aredistributed, interleaved and scrambled into rearranged bits 106 bychannel interleaver 43. Rearranged bits 106 are mapped onto modulationsymbols by symbol mapper 45. In the example of FIG. 6A, 64 QAMmodulation scheme is used. Each modulation symbol carries six bitsb0b1b2b3b4b5, with b0 and b3 have high bit reliability H, b1 and b4 havemedium reliability M, and b2 and b5 have low bit reliability L.

In one specific example of FIG. 6A, one set of encoded bits of “Y1, W1,A, B, Y2 and W2” are generated from CTC encoder 43, each of the six bitsare mapped to “L, M, M, H, H, L” respectively. Therefore, all threelevels of bit reliability L, M, and H of a 64QAM modulation symbol arebeing mapped, with every two bits being mapped to one level of bitreliability. In addition, two information bits and four parity bits arealso mapped to different levels of bit reliability to achieveconstellation diversity. In some other examples, the six encoded bitswithin the same set are not always mapped to all different levels of bitreliability of a modulation symbol. However, by circularly left-shiftinga selected number of bits for a selected number of subblocks, at leastsome of the consecutively encoded bits in the same set of the encodedbits are not mapped onto the same level of bit reliability of themodulation symbol.

As illustrated in the background section with respect to FIG. 3, becauseall subblocks are interleaved based on the same interleaving equation,the consecutively encoded bits are mapped onto the same bit reliability.This is a problem being referred to as inter-block continuity. In theexample of FIG. 6A, however, subblocks B, W1 and W2 have beenleft-shifted by k bit, and k is equal to integer one when Nep is equalto multiple of modulation order. For example, k=1 when Nep=576 or 1960,and modulation order=6 for 64QAM. Thus, but circularly shifting aselected number of bits for a selected number of subblocks, the problemof inter-block continuity is avoided, consecutively encoded bits withinthe same set of encoded bits are mapped onto different levels of bitreliability of a modulation symbol to achieve constellation diversity.

FIG. 6B illustrates how decoding performance at the receiver sidebecause of constellation diversity. FIG. 6B comprises a diagram ofdecoder input bits 104 and an FEC decoder 52. As illustrated in FIG. 6B,the decoder input bits 104 contains a plurality of set of decoding bits;each set of the decoding bits is equivalent to each set of the encodedbits after the entire process of interleaving, mapping, modulation atthe transmit side and the entire process of demodulation, de-mapping,and de-interleaving at the receiver side. Each set of the decoding bitsare supplied to FEC decoder 52 and decoded on a set-by-set basis.Because each set of the decoding bits has constellation diversity justlike each set of the encoded bits, decoding performance at the receiverside is thus improved with reduced run length of channel burst error.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a channel interleaver 71 that illustrates asecond embodiment of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4. Channelinterleaver 71 comprises a bit separation module 72, a subblockinterleaver 73, a bit-grouping module 74, and a constellation-basedpermutation module 75. Channel interleaver 71 is very similar ascompared to channel interleaver 61 of FIG. 5A. However, the order ofsubblocks W1 and W2 is reversed before being supplied to bit-groupingmodule 74. As a result, constellation-based permutation module 75selects three subblocks B, Y, and W instead of two subblocks B and W toperform scrambling by shifting. Subblock Y is circularly left-shifted byone bit, while subblocks B and W are circularly left-shifted by k bit,where k is set to integer one when the FEC block size Nep is equal tomultiple of the modulation order, and otherwise k is set to zero.Although the order of subblocks W1 and W2 are reversed, the same desiredconstellation diversity can be achieved for each set of encoded bits byshifting a selected number of bits on a selected number of subblocks.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a channel interleaver 81 that illustrates athird embodiment of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4. Channelinterleaver 81 comprises a bit separation module 82, a subblockinterleaver 83, a bit-grouping module 84, and a constellation-basedpermutation module 85. Channel interleaver 81 is also very similar ascompared to channel interleaver 61 of FIG. 5A. However,constellation-based permutation module 85 performs block-wise scramblingby swapping instead of shifting. First, a number of subblocks out of thefour subblocks A, B, Y, and W are selected. The selected number ofsubblocks is determined based on modulation order, FEC block size (Nep),and encoding scheme. In this particular example, information subblock Band parity subblock W are selected. Next, each of the selected subblocksis block-wise swapped. Block-wise swapping involves swapping the i-thbit and the (N−i+1)-th bit of a selected subblock having N bits, whereini is a running index from one to N/2. By swapping a selected number ofsubblocks, constellation diversity is achieved for each set of encodedbits generated by the FEC encoder to improve decoding performance.

Unit-Wise Scrambling

In addition to block-wise scrambling, unit-wise scrambling is anotherconstellation-based permutation scheme that is used in a channelinterleaver to achieve constellation diversity and to improve decoderperformance. FIG. 9A is a block diagram of a channel interleaver 91 thatillustrates a fourth embodiment of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4.Channel interleaver 91 comprises a bit separation module 92, a subblockinterleaver 93, a bit-grouping module 94, and a constellation-basedpermutation module 95. Instead of performing block-wise scrambling,constellation-based permutation module 95 performs unit-wise scramblingon interleaved bits 105 and outputs a plurality of rearranged bits 106.

FIG. 9B is a flow chart of channel interleaving with unit-wisescrambling scheme performed by channel interleaver 91 of FIG. 9A. First,a plurality of sets of encoded bits 101 from an FEC encoder isdistributed by bit separation module 92 into six subblocks (i.e., afirst set of multiple subblocks) (step 301). The six subblocks includetwo informational subblocks A and B, and four parity subblocks Y1, Y2,W1 and W2. Each of the six subblocks include a plurality of adjacentbits within each subblock. Each of the six subblocks is then interleavedindependently by subblock interleaver 93 (step 302). Bit-grouping module94 further multiplexes and regroups each of the interleaved subblocksinto a second set of multiple subblocks, where information subblocks Aand B remain the same, parity subblocks Y1 and Y2 are multiplexed andregrouped into subblock Y, and parity subblocks W1 and W2 aremultiplexed and regrouped into subblock W (step 303). After multiplexingand regrouping each interleaved subblock into a plurality of interleavedbits 105, interleaved bits 105 are finally unit-wise scrambled byconstellation-based permutation module 95 to generate rearranged bits106 to achieve constellation diversity (step 304).

Unit-wise scrambling further comprises several steps. First, eachsubblock is partitioned into multiple units (step 305). Next, a numberof units are selected from each subblock (step 306). Finally, theselected units are scrambled by either shifting or swapping (step 307).In the example of FIG. 9A, each subblock is partitioned into two units,a first and a second unit. For subblock A and Y, the second unit isselected for scrambling, and for subblocks B and W, the first unit isselected for scrambling. Each of the selected unit is then circularlyleft-shifted by one bit. In one novel aspect, by unit-wise scramblingfor a selected number of units on each subblock, constellation diversityis achieved to improve decoder performance at the receiver side.

FIG. 10 illustrates how constellation diversity is achieved within eachsubblock through constellation-based permutation module 95 of FIG. 9A.FIG. 10 comprises simplified diagrams of subblock A before and aftersubblock interleaving and scrambling. First, a plurality of sets ofencoded bits 101 is distributed into multiple subblocks, and eachsubblock includes a plurality of adjacent bits such as “188, 189, 190,191” of subblock A. Each subblock is then interleaved and scrambled intorearranged bits 106 by channel interleaver 91. Rearranged bits 106 aremapped onto modulation symbols by symbol mapper 45. In the example ofFIG. 10, 16QAM modulation scheme is used. Using 16QAM, each modulationsymbol carries four bits b0b1b2b3; with b0 and b2 have high bitreliability H, and b1 and b3 have low bit reliability L.

As illustrated in the background section with respect to FIG. 2, usingIEEE 802.16e channel interleaver 11, the adjacent bits of subblock A(i.e., “188, 189, 190, 191”) are mapped onto the same bit reliability(i.e., “L”) because of the adopted subblock interleaving scheme, aproblem being referred to as intra-block continuity. In the example ofFIG. 10, however, because the subblock is partitioned into two units,and only one of the two units is selected for scrambling, the adjacentbits of subblock A (i.e., “188, 189, 190, 191”) are thus prevented to bemapped onto the same level of bit reliability. In fact, the adjacentbits of subblock A are mapped onto different levels of bit reliability(i.e., “LHLH”). Intra-block continuity is thus avoided to improvedecoder performance. In addition, inter-block continuity is also avoidedbecause different units in different subblocks are selected forscrambling.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a channel interleaver 111 that illustratesa fifth embodiment of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4. Channelinterleaver 111 comprises a bit separation module 112, a subblockinterleaver 113, a bit-grouping module 114, and a constellation-basedpermutation module 115. Channel interleaver 111 is very similar ascompared to channel interleaver 91 of FIG. 9A. However,constellation-based permutation module 115 performs unit-wise scramblingby swapping instead of shifting. First, each subblock is partitionedinto a number of units. Next, a number of units are selected. Theselected number of units is determined based on modulation order, FECblock size (Nep), and the position of the selected block. Finally, eachselected unit is swapped. Swapping involves swapping the i-th bit andthe (N−i+1)-th bit of a selected unit having N bits, wherein i is arunning index from one to N/2.

In the example of FIG. 11, subblocks A and B are partitioned into N/3units, and subblocks Y and W are partitioned into 2*N/3 units, whereeach unit contains three bits. For subblocks A and Y, the first N/6 andN/3 units are selected, and the first and the last bit in each selectedunit are swapped. For subblocks B and W, the last N/6 and N/3 units areselected, and the first and the last bit in each selected unit areswapped. By partitioning subblocks into units and swapping a selectednumber of units, constellation diversity is achieved for each set ofencoded bits generated from the FEC encoder and for the adjacent bitswithin each subblock.

Simulation Result

FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams of simulation result for channelinterleaver performance under different interleaving options. In FIG.12A, FEC block size Nep is 960, modulation is 64QAM, and code rate is1/3. In FIG. 12B, FEC block size Nep is 960, modulation is 64QAM, andcode rate is 1/2. As illustrated by both FIGS. 12A and 12B, all proposedchannel interleavers outperform the original IEEE 802.16e channelinterleaver by about 2 dB (target BLER is 0.01). The performance ofchannel interleavers with block-wise scrambling scheme is similar to thechannel interleavers with unit-wise scrambling scheme when code rate is1/3. When code rate is 1/2, however, the performance of channelinterleavers with unit-wise scrambling scheme outperforms channelinterleavers with block-wise scrambling scheme by about 0.1˜0.3 dB.Unit-wise scrambling scheme provides increased performance because itcan gain constellation diversity within each subblock at the cost ofincreased complexity.

Other Embodiments

FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C are diagrams that illustrate other differentembodiments of channel interleaver 43 of FIG. 4. In the example of FIG.13A, bit separation module 46 receives a plurality of sets of encodedbits 101 from FEC encoder 42 and distributes the encoded bits intoseveral information subblocks and parity subblocks. Subblock interleaver47 interleaves all subblocks independently. Bit-grouping module 48multiplexes the interleaved subblocks and regroups them into subblocks.Constellation-based permutation module receives interleaved bits 105from bit-grouping module 48 and scrambles the interleaved bits intorearranged bits 106. In the example of FIG. 13B, constellation-basedpermutation module 49 receives interleaved bits 105 from subblockinterleaver 47 and scrambles the interleaved bits into rearranged bits106. Bit-grouping module 48 then multiplexes the rearranged bits 106 andregroups them into subblocks. In the example of FIG. 13C, bit-groupingmodule 48 and constellation-based permutation module 49 are implementedtogether as a single bit-grouping module.

Although the present invention has been described in connection withcertain specific embodiments for instructional purposes, the presentinvention is not limited thereto. For example, FEC encoder 42 of FIG. 4may not be a CTC encoder but some other type of encoder. In addition,symbol mapper 45 of FIG. 4 may not use 16QAM or 64QAM to map therearrange bits onto modulation symbols. Accordingly, variousmodifications, adaptations, and combinations of various features of thedescribed embodiments can be practiced without departing from the scopeof the invention as set forth in the claims.

1. A method for channel interleaving, comprising: distributing aplurality of sets of encoded bits into a first set of multiplesubblocks, wherein each set of the encoded bits contains multiple bitsgenerated by a forward error correction (FEC) encoder; interleaving eachof the first set of subblocks and outputting a plurality of interleavedbits; and rearranging the interleaved bits and outputting a plurality ofrearranged bits, wherein the rearranged bits are supplied to a symbolmapper, and wherein a plurality bits of consecutively encoded bits inthe same set of the encoded bits is prevented to be mapped onto the samelevel of bit reliability of a modulation symbol to achieve constellationdiversity.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple bits in eachset of the encoded bits are mapped onto different levels of bitreliability of the modulation symbol.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe multiple bits in each set of the encoded bits contain a first numberof informational bits, and wherein the first number of informationalbits are not mapped onto the same level of bit reliability.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the rearranging of the interleaved bitsfurther comprises: multiplexing the interleaved bits and grouping themultiplexed interleaved bits into a second set of multiple subblocks;selecting a number of subblocks from the second set of multiplesubblocks; and circularly shifting a number of bits on each of theselected subblocks.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the rearranging ofthe interleaved bits further comprises: grouping the interleaved bitsinto a second set of multiple subblocks; selecting a number of subblocksfrom the second multiple subblocks; and circularly shifting a number ofbits on each of the selected subblocks.
 6. The method of claim 4,wherein the number of subblocks selected is determined based onmodulation order, FEC block size, and encoding scheme.
 7. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the number of bits shifted is determined for each ofthe selected subblocks such that each set of the encoded bits generatedby the FEC encoder are mapped onto different levels of bit reliability.8. The method of claim 1, further comprises: selecting a number ofsubblocks from the first set of multiple subblocks; and performingblock-wise swapping on each of the selected subblocks.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the number of subblocks selected is determined based onmodulation order, (FEC) block size, and encoding scheme.
 10. The methodof claim 8, wherein the block-wise swapping involves swapping the i-thbit and the (N−i+1)-th bit of a selected subblock having N bits, whereini is a running index from one to N/2.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: multiplexing either the interleaved bits or the rearrangedbits.
 12. A channel interleaver, comprising: a bit separator thatdistributes a plurality of sets of encoded bits into a first set ofmultiple subblocks, wherein each set of the encoded bits containsmultiple bits generated by a forward error correction (FEC) encoder; asubblock interleaver that interleaves each of the first set of multiplesubblocks and outputs a plurality of interleaved bits; and aconstellation-based permutation module that rearranges the interleavedbits and outputs a plurality of rearranged bits, wherein the rearrangedbits are supplied to a symbol mapper such that a plurality ofconsecutively encoded bits in the same set of the encoded bits isprevented to be mapped onto the same level of bit reliability of amodulation symbol to achieve constellation diversity.
 13. Theinterleaver of claim 12, wherein the multiple bits in each set of theencoded bits are mapped onto different levels of bit reliability of themodulation symbol.
 14. The interleaver of claim 12, wherein the multiplebits in each set of the encoded bits contain a first number ofinformational bits, and wherein the first number of informational bitsare not mapped onto the same level of bit reliability.
 15. Theinterleaver of claim 12, further comprises: a bit-grouping module thatgroups the interleaved bits into a second set of multiple subblocks,wherein the constellation-based permutation module selects a number ofsubblocks from the second set of multiple subblocks and then circularlyshifts a number of bits on each of the selected subblocks.
 16. Theinterleaver of claim 12, further comprising: a bit-grouping module thatmultiplexes the interleaved bits and groups the multiplexed interleavedbits into a second set of multiple subblocks, wherein theconstellation-based permutation module selects a number of subblocksfrom the second multiple subblocks and then circularly shifts a numberof bits on each of the selected subblocks.
 17. The interleaver of claim16, wherein the number of subblocks selected is determined based on FECblock size, modulation order, and encoding scheme.
 18. The interleaverof claim 16, wherein the number of bits shifted is determined for eachof the selected subblocks such that each set of the encoded bitsgenerated by the FEC encoder are mapped onto different levels of bitreliability.
 19. The interleaver of claim 12, wherein theconstellation-based permutation module selects a number of subblocksfrom the first set of multiple subblocks and then performs block-wiseswapping on each of the selected subblocks.
 20. The interleaver of claim19, wherein the number of subblocks selected is determined based onforward error code (FEC) block size, modulation order, and encodingscheme.
 21. The interleaver of claim 19, wherein the block-wise swappinginvolves swapping the i-th bit and the (N−i+1)-th bit of a selectedsubblock having N bits, wherein i is a running index from one to N/2.22. The interleaver of claim 12, further comprising: a bit-groupingmodule that multiplexes either the interleaved bits or the rearrangedbits.
 23. An apparatus, comprising: an encoder that performs forwarderror correction (FEC) encoding and outputs a plurality of sets ofencoded bits, wherein each of the plurality of sets of encoded bitscontains multiple bits distributed into a first set of multiplesubblocks; and an interleaver for interleaving each of the first set ofmultiple subblocks and outputting a plurality of interleaved bits toreduce burst channel error length, wherein the interleaver is also forrearranging the interleaved bits and outputting a plurality ofrearranged bits, wherein the rearranged bits are supplied to a symbolmapper such that a plurality of consecutively encoded bits in the sameset of the encoded bits is prevented to be mapped onto the same level ofbit reliability of a modulation symbol to achieve constellationdiversity.
 24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the multiple bits ineach set of the encoded bits are mapped onto different levels of bitreliability of the modulation symbol.
 25. The apparatus of claim 23,wherein the multiple bits in each set of the encoded bits contain afirst number of informational bits, and wherein the first number ofinformational bits are not mapped onto the same level of bitreliability.
 26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the encodercomprises a convolutional turbo code (CTC) encoder.
 27. The apparatus ofclaim 23, wherein the interleaver rearranges the interleaved bits andcomprises a constellation-based permutation module that selects a numberof interleaved bits and circularly shifts the selected number ofinterleaved bits.
 28. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the interleaverrearranges the interleaved bits and comprises a constellation-basedpermutation module that selects a number of the first multiple subblocksand performs block-wise swapping on each of the selected subblocks. 29.The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the interleaver rearranges theinterleaved bits and comprises a bit-grouping module for multiplexingthe interleaved bits and grouping the multiplexed interleaved bits intoa second set of multiple subblocks, wherein a constellation-basedpermutation module that selects a number of interleaved bits from thesecond set of multiple subblocks and circularly shifts the selectednumber of interleaved bits.
 30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein theinterleaver rearranges the interleaved bits and comprises a bit-groupingmodule for multiplexing the interleaved bits and grouping themultiplexed interleaved bits into a second set of multiple subblocks,wherein a constellation-based permutation module that selects a numberof subblocks from the second set of multiple subblocks and performsblock-wise swapping on each of the selected subblocks.